With cement, concrete, and iron bars strictly limited in Strip, Palestinians and aid groups turn to alternative materials to construct temporary shelters.Aid agencies struggling to shelter thousands of Gazans made homeless by war have resorted to building makeshift temporary homes out of metal and wood to evade Israeli restrictions on imports into the coastal territory.Around 150,000 families are still homeless after last year's war between Israel and Hamas, in which IDF bombardment destroyed thousands of apartment buildings and homes. Israel tightly limits the flow of concrete, cement, iron bars and other materials into Gaza, as "dual use" items that could have a military purpose if they were seized by Hamas to rebuild tunnels used to launch attacks.That means few homes have been rebuilt despite international pledges of billions for reconstruction – though only a small portion of the pledged

funds has actually been donated. Rather than wait to rebuild permanent homes, some relief agencies have decided to build temporary structures with materials they can get. "We designed the transitional shelters without any dual use items so that within the existing restrictions, we could get as many vulnerable families as possible out of the elements," said Matt McGarry, Catholic Relief Services local representative.

His agency has built 70 single storey wooden temporary homes amid the rubble and smashed concrete of Khan Younis, a town in southern Gaza heavily damaged in the July-August war, and has funding for 100 more.

Forty families have moved in so far. While the homes provide a roof over the head amid heavy rain and freezing temperatures, large numbers of people are cramped into a small space that residents say feels like no replacement for the permanent houses that still lie in rubble nearby."It is only temporary," said Maryam Baraka, 58, sitting on a plastic chair outside the shelter which now houses 13 members of her family. The rubble of their two-story home nearby has not been cleared away since it was destroyed by IDF bombardment. For now, rebuilding it is still a dream. "There is no alternative to a brick house," she said. Israel's restrictions make it a slow and costly process to get hold of the building materials. A bag of cement in Gaza now costs around 100 shekels ($25), four times its usual price. Those Gazans who can afford to rebuild themselves are cobbling together designs that do not rely on standard building materials."The goal was to move quickly into a house to shelter my brother's six children and two wives," said Motasem Dalloul, whose brother has spent around $20,000 building a home out of plaster, metal, wood and the bit of cement he could afford. "It's built of materials that are easy to find in the Gaza market," he explained, adding that they had borrowed from friends and relatives to pay for the house, near the ruins of the family's old home in Gaza City.Many homeless Gazans are still living in tents more than six months after last year's war. The United Nations is sheltering more than 10,000 in 15 schools, which residents say are growing more dangerous as months go by with no end to overcrowding. In one such shelter, a nine-month-old baby was burned to death on Monday in an electrical fire.

Imad al-Khaldi, a local construction expert, has come up with a design for a house using widely available materials and has tried to persuade international agencies to adopt it, so far without success. He has built four homes using sandstone bricks, glued together with plaster. He stood proudly outside one of the buildings, which has already housed a family of 11 for five years. A sign outside reads "temporary residence".

About 1,000 students from the Gaza Strip, who are studying at universities abroad, have been stranded in Gaza since last summer’s war with Israel, Haaretz newspaper said Wednesday.“The students, whose studies and, in some cases, scholarships have been jeopardized by their failure to return to their campuses, are among some 8,000 Gazans on the Palestinian Interior Ministry’s waiting list of those who wish to go abroad if Rafah crossing is opened.”

“Other than in exceptional cases, since 1997 Israel has not allowed Palestinian residents of the Gaza Strip to go overseas by traversing Israel.”

The newspaper pointed out that Rafah crossing is Gaza’s sole gate for the outside world.

Due to the frequent closure of Rafah crossing and the unstable security situation in Sinai, thousands of people are still waiting to leave through Rafah crossing.

According to Haaretz, Israel has agreed to meet Palestinian Authority's demand to allow 150 university students to leave to Jordan during January through Beit Hanoun (Erez) crossing.

Haaretz noted, however, that only 38 students crossed into Israel and left through the border with Jordan, while the rest had passed through Rafah crossing.

“Palestinian Authority also asks Israel to allow 100 other stranded students to leave through Jordan crossing.”

The delay in their departure from Gaza in some cases could result in the loss of their scholarships and residence permits, the newspaper said.

Majdi Ismail, a student from Gaza, told Haaretz that he is worried that he would lose his scholarship and residence permit to study medicine in Tunisia if he is not allowed to travel by the end of this month. He planned to leave in August of last year, but his plans were scuttled by last summer's war.

UN Secretary-General Ban-ki Moon warned Tuesday of the continued siege imposed on the Palestinian people in Gaza, calling on donor countries to fulfill their pledges made during Cairo conference for Gaza’s reconstruction in Oct. 2014.

Ban-ki Moon's remarks came during a meeting for the UN Committee on the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People on Tuesday in New York.

The Committee would also address obstacles to peace requiring urgent action, such as illegal Israeli settlements, the situation in Jerusalem, the Gaza blockade, prisoners, and the humanitarian situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson vowed in a message from the Secretary-General.

Israel has imposed an unfair siege on 1.9 million people of Gaza since Hamas won Palestinian parliamentary elections in 2006.

The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People (CEIRPP) was founded in 1975 by Resolution 3376 of the United Nations General Assembly. The CEIRPP was assigned to send reports and recommendations to the UN Security Council on annual basis.

However, the Council did not adopt any of the committee's recommendations due to the US veto.

The Secretary General urged donor countries to fulfill their pledges made during Cairo conference for Gaza’s reconstruction in Oct. 2014 to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

On July 7, Israel carried out a bloody aggression on Gaza Strip that lasted for 51 days, killing more than two thousand Palestinians, and wounding about 11 thousand others, while 28,366 homes were partially or totally destroyed.

According to UN data, Israel's summer war on Gaza caused the displacement of approximately 100 thousand Palestinians, mostly are renting accommodation or staying with relatives, while about 15 thousand others are using UNRWA schools as “shelter” centers.

In October 2014, a donor conference in Cairo to raise money to rebuild the Gaza Strip after Israel's summer aggression on Gaza ended with pledges of $5.4 billion for reconstruction purposes.

He voiced hope that 2015 would see advances towards peace and agreement on a Security Council resolution that included a time-frame to end the occupation, as well as a new negotiating mechanism that would join the two sides.

Despite the collective failure of Israelis, Palestinians and the international community to advance a political solution during the 2014 International Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian People aimed at catalyzing global action, “all good forces must now be mobilized”, he said.

“At a time when the entire region is facing the threat of terrorism and violent extremism, resolving this conflict is clearly a matter of international security,” he said, calling on the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People to exert all efforts to enable the Palestinian people to exercise their rights.

The CEIRPP committee oversees "a program of implementation to enable the Palestinian people to exercise their inalienable right to self-determination without external interference, to national independence and sovereignty; and to return to their homes and property."

Israeli authorities, on Monday, continued its closure of the entrance leading to the village of Tura, in Yabod town, southwest of Jenin, for the fifth consecutive day, according to local residents.

The army placed a military checkpoint at the entrance of the village this past week,preventing residents, including students, from getting in or out of the village.

“The civilian population of the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) must be allowed to enjoy basic rights guaranteed in international law, including the right to freedom of movement,” said a United Nations OCHA report.

The report said, according to WAFA, that most Palestinian traffic is funneled into secondary and often lower-quality routes affecting their access to services and livelihoods.

In a survey, OCHA “documented and mapped a total of 522 obstacles (roadblocks, checkpoints, etc) obstructing Palestinian movement within the West Bank, a four percent increase from the equivalent figure recorded in July 2010.”

“Most of the movement restrictions imposed on Palestinians aim to protect the 500,000 Israeli settlers living in settlements established in contravention of international humanitarian law, aim to secure land for expansion of settlements, and to improve their connections with Israel,” said OCHA.

The ambulance was detained for about six hours and in it was a resident of Gaza, who had been discharged from a hospital in Nablus after over going heart surgery.

For six hours the ambulance had waited on the Palestinian side of the checkpoint for someone to solve the bureaucratic mess.

But apparently no one thought it to be an urgent matter. No one on the other side of the rifle or of the computer or of the phone thought that letting a person suffer like that for six hours was terrible.

There are regulations and there are rules and there are orders that are given by someone and preformed by someone else, but the person on the other side, the one on the gurney, doesn’t count.

“No co-ordinations have been made” they told the ambulance driver, which in Israeli army code means that the GSS won’t authorize the patient to cross the checkpoint and head home.

How could it be that someone who had been thoroughly inspected not so long ago and received permission from the very same authority to leave the Gaza strip, had crossed Erez checkpoint, got on an Israeli ambulance, drove to Qalandiya checkpoint and from there continued to a hospital in Nablus for life saving heart surgery, and now when heading back and lingering between life and death, unable to move without help, escorted by a doctor that was sent on behalf of the hospital to keep him alive, has in a blink of an eye turned into a security threat to Israel?

He posed such a serious threat that it was necessary to prevent him from crossing the checkpoint and heading home. This can only be answered by stating that anything is possible in the interaction between the occupier and the people under his rule.

Once the matter was resolved and it turned out that there is no prevention on the passage of this patient, and he and the relative that escorted him were allowed to cross the checkpoint, they had to say their goodbyes to the doctor, as there was a prevention on his passage and he couldn’t continue taking care of the patient during his ride to the Gaza strip.

Perhaps it was because he didn’t have a clearance, perhaps he was too young, perhaps someone in his family was incarcerated or a suspect or about to face a trial.

After all, they, the Palestinians, have a profile and everything is determined according to that profile.

The patient switched four gurneys that day, three ambulances and crossed two checkpoints.

There are many excuses for such conduct and many explanations and they are always “by the book”.

And even if this person hadn’t survived the abuse he went through during the hours of detainment at the checkpoint, no one would have been held accountable just as no one would have been held accountable if he hadn’t survived the trip from Qalandiya to Erez checkpoint.

Truth be told, such a reality is possible only because those who run the bureaucratic system don’t perceive the Others as human beings, but as a files filled with data according to which they with must be dealt with and which predetermine their fate. (Translated by Ruth Fleishman.)

- As a member of Machsomwatch, once a week Tamar Fleishman heads out to document the checkpoints between Jerusalem and Ramallah. She is also a member of the Coalition of Women for Peace and volunteer in Breaking the Silence. She contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com.

The Hamas Movement on Thursday warned it would not remain passive any more if the blockade on the Gaza Strip continued.

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri called for swiftly moving to lift the siege on Gaza from all sides or else the Movement and its armed wing al-Qassam Brigades would have to escalate the situation and break the blockade.

Addressing protestors during a massive rally staged by Hamas at Salahuddin Gate, near the border with Egypt, Abu Zuhri said, "Our stance is clear and straightforward. We call upon Egypt and its leaders to reconsider their position. Our resistance only targets the occupation and you should end you injustice to us."

The spokesman said that the Egyptian court ruling on al-Qassam Brigades of Hamas as a terrorist organization was extremely shocking to the Palestinian people, and the Arab and Muslim nations.

He pointed out that Egyptian intelligence officials had admitted several times though its contacts with Hamas that they knew that the Movement did not interfere in the internal affairs of their country, but they still keep silent on their media incitement against the Palestinians in Gaza.

Abu Zuhri also condemned the Egyptian judiciary for classifying al-Qassam Brigades as a terror group.

"We are standing here today in Rafah on the Egyptian-Palestinian borders because of an incident that has caused a great shock to all Gaza and Palestine people as well as the Arab and Muslim nations, when the Egyptian judiciary put the most honorable Islamic and Arab Movement on the terror list," he underscored.

"We want to tell the judge that 'it was not a mistake what you did, it was a crime against us and against Egypt before Palestine' because the Palestinian question has always been the Muslims' cause, and such Egyptian court verdict is not a passing procedure, but it is a real catastrophe. It is a disaster to see the equations reversed, where the occupation becomes a friend and the Palestinian people an enemy," he added.

Even zoo animals are not safe from Israel’s atrocities in the war-torn Gaza Strip as dozens waste away from thirst or hunger because of the blockade.Mohammed Awaida, the owner of the South Forest Park zoo in Khan Yunis, said the animals were dying because his staff couldn't get to the zoo to feed and care properly for the animals due to Israel's daily attacks and the blockade. He said the keepers were desperately trying to keep the animals alive, the Daily mail reported on Monday.

He added that the situation in the Gaza Strip has made it impossible to keep animals alive because there is not enough food to feed all of them. The South Forest Park zoo is one of the Gaza Strip’s five zoos.

The Gaza Strip has been under a crippling Israeli siege since 2007. The blockade, which has cut off the territory from the outside world, has led to an economic and humanitarian crisis in the densely-populated enclave.Summer onslaughtIsrael unleashed attacks on Gaza in early July 2014 and later expanded its military campaign with a ground invasion into the Palestinian territory. The war ended in late August that year.Over 2,130 Palestinians lost their lives and some 11,000 were injured. Gaza Health officials say the victims included 578 children and nearly 260 women. About 1,500 buildings and structures were also demolished during the Israeli offensive.Rebuilding has hardly started in Gaza, while experts say it will take a long time even if the Israeli regime considerably eases its blockade on the territory.

Israeli authorities opened Kerem Shalom trade crossing on Monday, to allow the entry of 560 truckloads of goods and fuel to the Gaza Strip.

Chairman of the Coordination Committee for the entry of goods, Raed Fattouh, said that the trucks are loaded with goods for trade, agricultural, transportation and aid sectors.

Fattouh stated, according to Al Ray, that "the occupation will allow the entry of 150 truckloads of gravels for the Qatar projects", noting that 99 trucks loaded with cement and gravel and iron for construction of international projects will also enter.

Fattouh says that the occupation will also soon allow quantities of fuel to be pumped.

Kerem Shalom is the only commercial crossing through which goods and fuel enter the Gaza Strip. Israeli authorities close it every Friday and Saturday. On other days, it works to less than half capacity.

Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi, Secretary General of the Palestinian National Initiative, said settlements in the West Bank and Jerusalem on one hand and the siege on Gaza on the other are two facets of the Israeli aggression on the Palestinian people.Barghouthi said, in a statement on Monday, Israel is planning and actually constructing 14,523 new settlement units in occupied Jerusalem and all over the West Bank.

At the same time, it keeps on the crippling siege on Gaza and hinders the reconstruction of the enclave, he said, adding that thousands of displaced Gazans have been suffering from miserable health and environmental conditions.

Dr. Barghouthi said that the conference on Gaza reconstruction was a “big deception” just like the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations. It aims to cover the crimes of the Israeli occupation as well as the expansion of settlements and the attempt to liquidate the Palestinian question, according to Barghouthi.

He opined that the real deterrent to Israeli crimes requires speeding up the unification of the Palestinian people under a unified leadership, to hold Israel accountable before international courts, and to escalate the popular resistance and boycott of Israel.

A Palestinian human rights center condemned on Sunday Israel’s tightening of the noose on Gaza Strip since 2006, citing arresting people travelling via Beit Hanoun (Erez) crossing as the latest development in such a policy.Insan Human Rights Center said in a statement that the Israeli repressive policy against Gaza Strip restricts people’s movement via Beit Hanoun border crossing.

The statement pointed out that a Palestinian merchant was recently arrested on the border crossing while on his way to receive goods despite obtaining a permit from Israeli economy ministry.

The Palestinian businessman, Abdulhakim Shubair, is expected to be brought before court Tuesday on the charge of importing banned electric wires.

The center called on human rights institutions to intervene urgently, to stop Israeli violations of the international laws and conventions, and to facilitate people’s movement via Beit Hanoun crossing.

The human rights center also called for an end to the deliberate targeting of Palestinian economy by restricting Palestinian traders’ movement, and to protect the people living in the besieged strip of Gaza.

The Palestinian security apparatuses imposed a series of tight security measures along the Gaza-Egypt borders following Thursday’s deadly Sinai attack on Egyptian army officers.Spokesman for the Gaza-based Palestinian interior ministry Eyad a-Bazm said in a press statement Friday the security apparatuses tightened security measures on the border with Egypt in the wake of the recent Sinai attack.

Dozens of Egyptian army officers were killed in a series of blasts that rocked Egyptian military sites in northern Sinai afternoon Thursday. Militant group Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis claimed responsibility for the attack.